Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.
Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.
Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004. He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.
Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.
Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice. Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state. He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.
Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified. He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019. He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.
In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases. The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.
Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers. He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.
Yesterday, we started to discuss Waggoner v. Caruso 2009 NY Slip Op 06739 Decided on September 29, 2009 ; Appellate Division, First Department ; (DeGrasse, J.)
Today we discusse continuous representation, which, in this form, is a question of first impresssion, an issue taken up directly by Justice DeGrasse in the Appellate Division order:…
This is a Politico – A List legal malpractice case. In Waggoner v. Caruso 2009 NY Slip Op 06739 Decided on September 29, 2009 ; Appellate Division, First Department ; (DeGrasse, J.) we see some of the nations biggest names.
Besides being about a $ 10 Million loss, the players are all very recognizable. For…
Justice Judith Gische of Supreme Court, New York County presents a primer on attorney fee litigation and the disposition of counterclaims for legal malpractice in Hurley v. Bulah Church of God in Christ Jesus, Inc. In this case the Church had gone through some hard times. A pastor was accused of financial wrongdoing, and…
Today’s NYLJ features an article by Marcia Coyle on a series of cases coming up before the US Supreme Court. Of the 6 cases to be heard [almost triple the usual number] at least four are legal malpractice scenario: Wood v. Allen is a death penalty case in Alabama in which a newly admitted attorney failed…
We end this week with a look at a huge legal malpractice action just brought against Greenberg Traurig LLP, based upon patent work, and a more than $1 million judgment entered against their client. Widely reported yesterday, the complaint was set forth in the NYLJ. What is it about?
The complaint alleges that defendants…
Here is how a borrowing statute affects litigation and why a Pennsylvania statute of limitations applies to New York litigation. CPLR 202 requires that when a nonresident sues on a cause of action accruing outside New York, CPLR 202 requires the cause of action to be timely under the limitations periods of both New York…
Landlord hires big-time Landlord-Tenant attorneys in New York City, and expect that the attorneys are in fact bringing a series of eviction proceedings. This case alleges that they did not, yet charged fees, and misled the client. What is a client to do? In this instance they sued for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty…
Were one to read each of the 150+ legal malpractice cases decisions filed each year, one would see a wide range of attorney-client problems. Some are frivolous and some very serious. This case, DAVID GOLDSTEIN, Plaintiffs, – against – ALLEN S. GOLD and LAW OFFICES OF ALLEN S. GOLD, Defendants;No. 06 CV 6707…
When one files a petition in bankruptcy, ownership of assets is upended. Some if not all assets of the debtor become part of the estate, and will be used to pay creditors. A current cause of action in legal malpractice, even if not reduced to a law suit is one such asset. What happens if…
Since the Court of Appeals decided Amalfitano v. Rosenberg we have seen an upswing in reported successful Judiciary Law 487 cases. Here in Moormann v Hoerger ;2009 NY Slip Op 06518 ;Decided on September 15, 2009 ;Appellate Division, Second Department plaintiff loses legal malpractice, but avoids summary judgment on the Judiciary Law cause…
